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Stuart Turton – The Devil and the Dark Water (2020)
Review I was somewhat slow to this, reading it a few years after it came out. Setting up a master detective requires a deftness of touch; go too far, and they sound rather Mary Sue, but if you don’t go far enough in impressing their credentials on the reader then they and the plot can…
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Claire Evans – The Graves of Whitechapel (2020)
Review Having written a collection of short stories about detective work in the Victorian East End, this is of course going to catch my eye, which it did eventually on a Tower Hamlets library shelf. (And the Whitechapel branch, no less.) This is the second novel by TV producer, Claire Evans, although both stand alone.…
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Victoria Dowd – The Supper Club Murders (2022)
Review This is the third in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names) and aunt Charlotte, plus some of their friends and acquaintances, and the series just keeps getting better. As in the previous two books, the Smart women endeavour to go on a…
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Agatha Christie – Cards on the Table (1936)
Review I am slowly picking my way through more of the twentieth-century greats’ novels, and Christie’s Poirot novels are excellent travelling companions. Compact and concise, this one was great for a flight and the long commute back from the airport. In brief, eccentric society man Mr Shaitana is stabbed at one of his own parties…
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Frank Tallis – Mortal Mischief (2005)
Preamble Check out my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or, if you’re a particular Edinburgh enthusiast, try my novella Researcher Wanted, available on Kindle. Review As one of the extraordinary sidekick series I’ve written about before, I watched Vienna Blood when it first broadcast and so the characters…
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Ambrose Parry – The Death of Shame (2025)
Preamble Check out my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or, if you’re a particular Edinburgh enthusiast, try my novella Researcher Wanted, available on Kindle. Review I’m grateful to the publisher and author for an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel via NetGalley. Victorian Edinburgh. I’ve covered a bit…
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Victoria Dowd – Body on the Island (2021)
Review This is the second in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names), aunt Charlotte, and godmother Mirabelle, plus book-club hanger-on Bridget and her dog. The unreliable narrator of the series, Ursula, is prima facie a shaky, timid soul who hasn’t ever recovered from…
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Martin Edwards – Blackstone Fell (2022)
Preamble Take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Review It’s been a while since I reviewed something that I learnt about on the fantastic Death of the Reader podcast, which seems to be currently in abeyance, but they made the story sound like such great…
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Arthur Conan Doyle – The Sign of the Four (1890)
Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Review I have tended not to review here the Victorian fiction on which I write…
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Carole Lawrence — Edinburgh Twilight (2017)
If you’re interested in nineteenth-century historical crime fiction, take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; available now! Or if you’re a fan of the Scottish capital, check out my short story on Kindle, Researcher Wanted (free on Kindle Unlimited). Review I read this some time ago but…
Dominique Gracia 